


The Demon Child of Goldenleaves Forest

by inappropriatestarstable



Category: Star Stable
Genre: Demon child quest spoilers, I'd tag Rob and Bob but let's be honest nobody searches for fics about them
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-30
Updated: 2018-12-30
Packaged: 2019-09-30 21:05:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,106
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17231177
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/inappropriatestarstable/pseuds/inappropriatestarstable
Summary: There's something a little weird going on in the forest. These quests were the first ISSO I ever did on my blog, so I decided to make it a fic to celebrate three years of this insanity.





	1. Shit Gets Real

“Look, it wasn’t the craziest night I’ve ever had.”

That was how she’d tell the story later, after she’d replaced her brave grin and banished the shivers down her spine, after she’d spent the rest of the night kneeling in the hay of Lion’s stall with tired eyes, stroking his neck until they both fell asleep. She’d laugh it off like she always did, she’d forget, she’d roll her eyes when Lion declared that he was _never going near that forest again and if you think I am you can go fuck yourself_.

But it had all started so innocently: a trail of sugar cookies on the ground leading into Goldenleaves forest and Lion immediately snatching one before Ariana could pull his head up.

“Lion,” she scolded. “It’s probably got bugs on it or some shit.”

Lion’s ears flickered with momentary regret, but he kept chewing stubbornly. Ariana rolled her eyes, turning her head when she saw a ceramic cookie jar lying in the leaves not far away, the name “Rob” clearly painted on it. Well, she had nothing against Rob and Bob; in fact, she liked them. Might as well do Rob a favor and return his cookie jar. She dismounted and picked up the jar, brushing off the dirt.

“Don’t forget the cookies,” said Lion, bumping her elbow with his nose and nearly making her drop the jar.

“They’re on the ground, Lion; they’re nasty.”

“Rob probably won’t care,” Lion pointed out. Ariana rolled her eyes and relented, picking up the cookies on the ground a few feet away.

“Might as well follow the trail.”

She walked into the cover of the trees, bending to pick up each cookie in the trail and swatting Lion’s nose away every time he got too close to the cookie jar in her hand. She was just about to protest that this was stupid, that they should leave the rest of the cookies and just return the damn jar, when the sound of a muffled whimper reached her ears.

“The hell?” She turned; Lion pricked his ears, looking around nervously.

A tall, muscular pirate was huddled behind a tree nearby, looking out at them with frightened eyes. He would have looked intimidating, but between his obvious fear and the fact that she knew him to be about as intimidating as a kitten—or even a Lion—she offered a smile.

“Hey Rob. You okay, dude?”

He blinked at her. “Ariana?” 

So he recognized her. It had been a while, and Rob wasn’t exactly known for his memory. She grinned at him.

“Yeah, dude, it’s me. You all right?”

Rob rubbed his arms nervously.

“Rob…brr…not talking now.”

Ariana raised an eyebrow, offering the jar. “Will these help?”

Rob’s eyes brightened and he eagerly reached into the jar, stuffing a few cookies in his mouth. They seemed to invigorate him; he glanced around at their surroundings before focusing on her.

“Rob want be with Bob now!” he demanded, before giving her a pleading look. “Please? Take Rob to Bob on horse.”

This was going to be a pain, she sighed inwardly, but what else could she do—leave Rob in the forest? Bob was probably looking for him.

“Yeah, okay.”

“Oh dear god no,” Lion groaned.

It took a bit of scrambling, but she managed to give Rob a leg-up onto Lion before carefully climbing on herself. They set off for the Smugglers’ Cave, Lion tossing his head and groaning dramatically.

“Ariana, if you keep treating your poor innocent horse this way, I’m not gonna live to be ten.”

“You turned eleven this year, you dumbass,” she retorted, gently slapping his neck with the loop of his reins. “Are you so old now that you’ve got memory problems?”

He snorted in disgust, but he didn’t stay quiet for long.

“And ANOTHER thing,” he said as they descended the slope to the beach. “I am not giving rides to anyone else, ever. Not even if you ask me nicely.”

“Sure, whatever,” Ariana said, distracted. Rob was slowly slipping off to the side; she twisted her arm behind herself and grabbed him by the arm. “Does that include me?”

“Obviously.”

If Bob was surprised to see his friend arriving on horseback and awkwardly falling to the cave floor, he didn’t let on. He gave Ariana a grin, showing mossy teeth, before turning to Rob.

“There you are! Was starting to wonder where you’d got to. Where is it?” When Rob shook his head, Bob frowned. “Arr, Rob—what do you mean you haven’t got it?”

“Got what?” Ariana couldn’t help asking.

“A statue we picked up in Southeast Asia,” Bob said over his shoulder.

“Ghost statue,” Rob mumbled, shoving another cookie in his mouth. “It came out.”

Bob rolled his eye. “You useless shit, there’s no ghost in the statue. Ariana, did you happen to see a little statue where Rob was?”

Ariana cocked an eyebrow. “Uh, no. I was picking cookies off the ground.”

Rob grinned at her appreciatively, clutching his cookie jar. Bob blew out his breath in annoyance.

“I got that statue for a bargain, and I know I can sell it for a decent price. Ariana, you think you can go find it for me?”

“What the hell, why do I have to—”

Bob cut her off: “Rob’s scared, and he needs tea and cookies,” he said firmly. “I’ll do that.”

Ariana sighed loudly. “Fine. Don’t say I never did anything for you.”

Bob grinned his broken-toothed grin at her. “There’ll be tea and cookies in it for you after you get back.”

—

“Ariana, I don’t like this.”

She sighed through her nose and nudged Lion on. They trotted under the cover of the golden trees, Lion’s ears flicking back and forth uneasily.

“The light’s weird.”

“The light’s weird?” she repeated, laughing. “What next, Lion—the leaves are a weird color? The earth’s slightly out of orbit? Is Mercury in retrograde?”

“Shut up,” said Lion. “It’s weird. It was day before, and now it looks like sunset.”

Ariana looked up. He was right; the light did look more like sunset. But she didn’t come here much; for all she knew, it was just a trick that all the golden leaves played on your eyes. Whatever. The sooner they found this damn statue, the sooner they could leave. Bob didn’t even tell her what the hell it looked like, the dumbass.

After halfheartedly looking through a few bushes near where she’d found Rob, Ariana was about ready to leave—until she heard a voice through the trees.

“You won’t find it there.”

It was a light, teasing voice, a girl’s voice, but there was something about it that sent a thrill shooting up Ariana’s spine. She turned her head sharply; Lion tensed under her and she tightened his reins as a reflex to keep him from bolting.

When she saw where the voice had come from, she let out her breath in a laugh.

“Chill, Lion—it’s a kid.”

The little girl across the clearing cocked her head, a tiny smile tugging at the edges of her lips. She looked to be around eight or nine years old—though if Ariana was honest, she couldn’t tell kids’ ages for shit—and dressed in simple clothing. Curiously, her legs bent towards each other like twisted trees, and she curled one arm close to her body, the wrist and fingers bent at unnatural angles. There was something about her, though—something that Ariana couldn’t quite put her finger on.

“You’ll never find it,” said the girl, smiling. “But I know where it is.”

Ariana frowned a little. “Well, can you tell me?”

“Ariana, I don’t like this,” said Lion. “How does she know we’re here for that statue thing?”

“Shush, Lion,” said Ariana. “Well?” she called to the girl. “Can you point it out, or something?”

The girl kept smiling. “I can take you there.”

“Great.” Ariana picked up the reins. “Let’s go, Lion.”

The little girl moved through the forest with a painfully slow, shuffling gait, dragging one of her legs slightly behind her. Ariana kept Lion to a slow walk, attempting to keep pace with the girl, made more difficult by Lion refusing to get too close.

“I don’t liiiike this,” he whined. “This is like that horror movie with the little girl. The one where she kills her family with that axe.”

Ariana rolled her eyes. “You just made that up.”

“I didn’t!”

“It’s there, by that tree,” the little girl said in her lilting voice, cutting off Ariana’s comeback. She pointed.

“Okay, thanks.” Ariana put her heels to Lion’s sides and they trotted toward the tree the little girl had indicated. Ariana slid to the ground, her boot heels crunching on the leaves, and bent to pick up the ugly little stone statue.

“Damn, dude needs some plastic surgery.”

A lilting giggle reached her ears. Ariana tensed; the sound had seemed to come from all around her. She and Lion whipped their heads around, but the little girl was nowhere to be seen.

“Okay, now I really hate this,” said Lion.

“Shut _up_ , Lion.”

The giggling voice seemed to echo softly through the trees: “I told you you’d never find it on your own!”

Ariana blinked; the girl was standing right in front of them. How had she appeared so quickly? Had she been hiding? Ariana let out an annoyed huff; she was so not in the mood for hide-and-seek.

“Thanks for the help, see you la—”

“Now that I’ve helped you find what you’re looking for,” the girl said, smiling sweetly up at her, “I’d like you to help me in return.”

“Yeah, what do you need?”

“I’ve injured myself and can’t walk very well.” The girl indicated her twisted arm and legs with a forlorn look. “Might you be able to take me back to town on your horse?”

“Okay, now I’m creeped out,” Ariana said silently to Lion. There was no way the little girl had just injured herself; if anything, her curious limbs looked more as though they’d been that way for ages. And besides, Ariana would expect any brat that age to be whining and crying, hanging off her leg and begging for a ride on Lion before they would ever think to use the words “injured” and “Might you?”

Ariana hesitated, squeezing her hand around Lion’s reins. He lowered his nose to breathe a warm, nervous breath on the back of her neck.

“Ariana… Don’t let her touch me, please.”

“Please?” the girl begged, holding out a small hand. “I helped you.”

Ariana pressed her lips together, forcing herself to stuff down the doubt. She could only imagine the hell she’d catch when some mother in Cape West found out that Ariana had left her kid in the forest to be eaten by the wolf pack. For all Ariana knew, she’d done the kid’s dad. It was the least she could do.

“What the hell,” she said, and stretched out her hand.

Their fingers met with a flash like lightning and the smell of sulfur. Ariana stumbled back to lean against Lion, coughing, and stumbled harder when Lion jumped back with an alarmed neigh.

The area had filled with dark smoke like from a forest fire, and just as Ariana began to panic that she’d started one somehow, she fixed her eyes on the face staring out at her from the center of the black aura.

“I KNEW IT, ARIANA—I FUCKING KNEW IT.”

_“Lion, shut the fuck up!”_

Red eyes, filled with a crazed delight, stared out at them from above a gaping, grinning mouth filled with sharp teeth and a red light glowing from within like a furnace. The mouth widened and a laugh poured from it, so unlike the little girl’s giggle—savage and crazed, like the look in those red eyes.

“It won’t be much longer before I’ve got my full power back!” The demon’s voice was loud enough to fill the forest; it seemed to wrap around them, fencing them in from all sides. “I don’t have to worry about hiding away in that ugly human form anymore.” Those red eyes fixed themselves directly on Ariana’s eyes, making her tense involuntarily and grit her teeth.

“Of course, we’ve got you here, little girl.”

She bristled. _No one_ called her little girl.

“What do you say I give you a head start while I gobble up your horse?” The demon laughed again as Lion whinnied in fearful protest. “Not that you’ll get far before my teeth sink into you as well! Hahahaha!”

“Ariana!” Lion tugged against his reins, half-rearing. He was losing his grip, and with the threat in front of them and her only hope of escape about to leave her ass behind, she was suddenly spurred into action. Spinning on her heel, she thrust her boot into the stirrup and leaped atop his back, gathering handfuls of mane with her reins in her haste. The demon laughed again, its teeth flashing.

“Hahaha! You think you can escape me?”

“You wanna bet, motherfucker?” Ariana spit out, trying and failing to feel for her other stirrup as Lion reared, twisting his head in panic. _Fuck it._ “By the way, asshole—the little girl was creepier.”

She jammed her heels against Lion’s sides, thrusting her hands along his neck, and he tucked his hindquarters and bolted, tearing through the forest in blind terror while the demon howled behind them. Ariana tangled her fingers in his mane as they burst out from the cover of the trees, pounding up the hill to the road and onto the broken stone bridge. She hissed out a breath as Lion launched himself gracelessly over the gap, her teeth snapping together on the landing hard enough to taste blood. She shook it off and urged Lion on down the road. They were nearly to Scarecrow Hill when she chanced a glance over her shoulder and saw no creepy-ass eyes on their tail, it was clear that the demon hadn’t followed.

“Lion,” she panted, “we’re good. It didn’t follow us.”

Lion turned his head enough for Ariana to see the whites of his eyes, but she tugged insistently at the reins, and panic slowly released its hold on him; he dropped from a gallop to a canter to an uneasy trot before halting at the roadside, his sides heaving.

“Good job, buddy,” she said, patting his neck. “We’re not dead.”

Lion flattened his ears, too shaken to reply. Ariana took advantage of his silence.

“You’re not gonna like this, though—we should probably do something about that situation.”

Lion found his voice: “Oh _hell_ no.”

Not taking no for an answer, she nudged him on. They trudged down the hill and along the shoreline under the broken stone bridge, heading back to the relative safety of the Smugglers’ Cave.


	2. Shit Gets Even More Real

“You see this?” Ariana demanded. “My lip’s bleeding, and I think my tongue is too—I can’t tell. You know how much money I’m gonna lose until this heals?”

Bob snorted, his eye glimmering with amusement. “Not my fault, Ariana.”

“It _is_ your fault, sending me to get that goddamn shitty-ass statue that’s possessed by a freaking demon. You’re lucky that I want to get my revenge on that damn thing.”

“I don’t!” Lion piped up from the corner of the cave. She ignored him.

“You gotta know what that thing is,” she said to Bob. “You’re the one who found it.”

“When you do as much traveling as Rob and I do, you hear a lot of stories,” said Bob, his bushy brow furrowing thoughtfully. “Mostly bullshit, but this wouldn’t be the first time we’d stumbled across a magical or possessed object.”

“Then you’d think you’d know how to tell by now,” said Ariana. Lion snorted in agreement. He’d joined Rob in the corner, munching on the cookies offered to him by the smiling pirate.

“This particular statue, though,” said Bob, “I’m unsure where it’s from. Any ideas, Rob?”

“I thought you said you got it in India,” said Ariana.

“ _Rata danava Usiku_ ,” said Rob around a mouthful of cookie. It sounded like nonsense to Ariana, but Bob clapped his big hands together, making Lion jump.

“That’s it! Of course—that Indian man? The one speaking Hindi? That’s what he said, isn’t it— _rata danava Usiku_. That means ‘Usiku, monster of the night.’”

Ariana raised a brow. “You speak Hindi?”

“Of course I can! I’ve traveled everywhere!” Bob waved his hand impatiently. “Help me look through all my books for something to do with either monsters of the night or Usiku.”

Ariana’s gaze slid to the piles and piles of books lining the back wall of the cave. “No.”

Rob plucked a book from the stack nearest him and offered it to her. “This?”

It was at least a book about India; Ariana tossed it to Bob. “Here, found one.”

She pretended to look through the stacks as Bob flipped through the book. A moment later he laughed.

“Found it!” He jabbed his finger at the page. “Here: ‘A monster of the night hates the light and through its powers can turn its surroundings into light and darkness.’”

“Mood,” said Ariana.

“That’ll be why the light in the forest looked different from the light outside.”

“I _told_ you the light was weird,” said Lion.

“Shut up.” Ariana nodded to Bob. “What else does it say?”

Bob grimaced. “If Usiku—that’s the monster’s name—gets what it wants, it’ll soon be an eternal night in the forest, and then it’ll take over the whole valley.”

“Oh, you mean like how it already is on Scarecrow Hill?”

“If we don’t do something to stop it,” said Bob, his eye wide, “we’ll be facing an eternal night over all of Jorvik!”

“But like, what’s so bad about nighttime, really?” Ariana couldn’t help pointing out. “Besides, you live here, not me.”

Bob wasn’t listening; he was staring intently at the book.

“Hmm, it says here how we can stop it. We need to recapture it in its home—the statue.”

Ariana looked at the ugly little statue where it sat on a wooden crate. Nobody was going to want it for decoration, anyway.

“But first, we need to weaken the monster. We’ll need incense.”

“Okay, great, you know where we can buy some?”

“We’ll need to make it.”

Ariana and Lion groaned in unison.

“Oh hell no,” she said. “I’m not running around collecting bark off trees or some shit. Fine, Jorvik doesn’t have a fuckin’ Pottery Barn, but can’t we just buy some damn incense?”

—

Fifteen minutes later, she was chipping bark off a tree behind the Goldenleaf Stables paddock with Bob’s knife, stabbing harder than necessary.

“This—is—bullshit,” she said in between stabs. Hearing soft hoofbeats behind her, she called, “Lion, you find that yellowroot?”

“Here.” Lion opened his mouth and several half-chewed plant stalks fell to the ground. She sighed through her nose and picked them up.

“This is honestly gonna be the worst smelling incense ever,” she said as she tucked the materials into her pockets and climbed into the saddle. “Tree bark, some random plant, and horse drool.”

Upon her return, she was even more annoyed to notice that Rob and Bob didn’t seem to have moved an inch.

“These are some pretty nice pieces of bark!” Bob said approvingly.

“How can you tell?” she said dryly.

“I’ve actually made incense a few times during my travels to India.” Bob wasn’t listening. “I can mix this no problem!”

“How convenient.”

Ariana sat down beside Rob to wait while Bob fussed around with the ingredients. Rob smiled and offered her a cookie. She took a bite out of the side that seemed to have the least dirt on it and smiled back at Rob.

“There!” Bob slapped a hand down on the table, seeming pleased with himself. “You won’t find better incense this side of the finest incense bazaars in India!”

“You literally made that from some dirt and leaves that Lion slobbered on.”

Bob poured the mixture into a few different bowls, shoving one into her hands. “Here—put these out in the forest. But be careful. Usiku is obviously creeping around, looking for its next victim.”

“I’m not going back in the—”

“When you’ve put out the incense, come and talk to me.”

“I said I’m not—”

“Rob and I will come with you and we’ll wait just outside the forest.”

—

There was no way she was going to even attempt to pile both Bob and Rob on Lion’s back, so they made their way back to the forest well ahead of the two smugglers.

“I’m not going in there, Ariana.”

“Yes, you are,” she said, pressing her heels even more firmly against Lion’s sides.

“I’m not.” He cantered down the path, tossing his head petulantly. “No way. Nuh-uh.”

“Lion, you’re coming with me and that’s final.”

He dropped to a trot, pinning back his ears and closing his eyes as he complained in time with the sound of his hoofbeats. “No, no, no, no, no.”

She burst out laughing. “Lion—”

“ _No, no, no_ —”

“Lion!” she said, still laughing. “Lion, you dumbass. You’re in the forest.”

Lion stopped dead, his eyes flying open. They were far enough under the cover of the trees that there was no point in turning back.

“Fuck.”

“Come on, you dumbfuck,” she said fondly, swinging down from the saddle. “Keep an eye out for the demon while I put these bowls out.”

They made their way through the forest, setting a bowl of incense every twenty feet or so. Lion’s ears were swiveling fast enough to make him look like a jackrabbit, but all was seemingly quiet. Maybe Usiku had left the forest and had run into the wolf pack. Or maybe he was eating Jasper, who the hell knew.

The last bowl placed, and with the smell starting to annoy her, Ariana climbed back onto Lion and turned him back to the edge of the forest. Hopefully the sound of hoofbeats wouldn’t alert the demon, but the soft forest floor softened them well enough.

Bob and Rob were waiting patiently at the start of the trail.

“Is all the incense where it should be?” Bob called.

“Yeah.”

“Great! Now here’s the dangerous part.”

“Shit.”

“You need to take Lionhunter into the forest with you and stand in clear view of Usiku. I want it to think it’ll be able to catch you. Let Usiku chase you around the forest a little bit, and then run out here to safety.”

“Wh—” Ariana sputtered. “How about _no_.”

“If we’re lucky,” said Bob, “Usiku will be more worried about catching you—”

“If we’re _lucky_?”

“—and it won’t notice the incense or its weakening powers.”

Lion shook his head, his bridle jingling. “No, no, no.”

“Dude, are you kidding me?” Ariana demanded. “Why don’t you and Rob do it?”

Bob looked pointedly down at his peg leg before looking at Rob, who had found a pretty red leaf and was distractedly admiring it.

Ariana sighed.

“Fine. But if I get killed, I’m haunting your asses.”

Bob laughed. “You’ll be fine.”

Lion twisted his head around to look at her on his back. “Ariana, we are _not_ doing this.”

She gave his neck a gentle slap as she nudged him forward. “C’moooon, we got this. We’re badasses. We escaped before.”

“Yeah, barely!” Lion was obeying, for now, but he was getting more and more jittery as they headed back into the forest. “That thing is a fucking demon, Ariana! It’s not going to be scared of a handsome horse and some random bitch!”

“Holy shit.” Ariana reined Lion in and dismounted. “Lion, you’re a genius.”

“What?”

She dug in the pockets of the long black coat she wore, a gift from a strange acquaintance. Her fingers immediately found powder.

“Let’s see what this shit does, shall we?”

“Wait, what are you—” Lion broke off into a sneeze as she tossed the magical powder over his head, purple and orange powder mixing together as it dusted his black mane. A flare of light burst in front of her eyes, and when she blinked, she immediately grinned.

“Now that’s what I’m talking about!”

Lion’s coat, already dark bay, was made even darker by the black aura that hovered around him like a dark mist. Black smoke trailed up his legs to mingle with the aura, smoke from the flames that flickered beneath his hooves and left fiery hoofprints behind as he stepped about nervously, trying to look at himself.

“What…did you do.”

“I made you scarier.” Pleased with herself, she swung back into his saddle and urged him into a canter. “Now let’s go find that thing.”

It didn’t take long for them to find Usiku—or for Usiku to find them. The flash of light hadn’t exactly been subtle. Neither was Ariana’s repeated shouting.

“Come get some, bitch!” she yelled as they galloped, making Lion flatten his ears. “I’m not scared of you! Come on, come out here! Show me what you got, mothafuckaaaa!”

The demonic face with the glowing eyes suddenly loomed out of the darkness; Lion slid to a stop and reared.

“What? The human girl is back?” The demon seemed momentarily surprised, but it quickly recovered and broke into pleased laughter. “Hahahaha! Have you come to surrender?”

“Not fucking likely,” said Ariana, tightening Lion’s reins to keep him still.

“I suppose you came to realize that it was just a matter of time before I’d find you. Hahaha! Do you see? My powers are growing minute by minute, and for every hour that passes, I’m ever stronger! Soon it will be night forever over this whole island!” The demon’s savage laughter seemed to shake the tree branches; it _did_ seem stronger.

“But enough chat.” The smiling mouth grinned even wider. “It’s time for me to devour you! Come here.”

Lion leaped backward before the demon had finished speaking, his flaming hooves dancing. Ariana asked him to back up, and he did, swishing his tail nervously as the demon advanced.

“Ohh, I see!” Usiku taunted, still grinning. “You want to carry on playing, do you? Well, run if you can, but you’ll never escape me! This just makes it more fun! It makes me hungrier and you’ll taste better when I devour you entirely!”

“Yeah, see—no different from any dude,” Ariana said between gritted teeth as Lion reared. “Likes the chase, won’t take no for an answer, wants to eat me.”

Lion reared again, fighting against her hands. “NOT THE FUCKING TIME, ARIANA!”

The demon’s laugh only seemed to get louder, sounding like a roar. “I can’t wait to hear your screams when I finally bite into you! Hahaha—wait. What’s that terrible smell? What have you done?”

Thank god. She’d managed to lead him back toward the incense pots. Though perhaps “thank god” wasn’t the correct reaction, she supposed, as the savage face in front of her suddenly blazed with rage, its roar shaking the forest.

“AAAAAAARGHHH, GIRL, JUST WAIT UNTIL I GET YOU!”

“Time to go.” Ariana loosened Lion’s right rein, jamming her left boot against his side, and he spun on a dime and took off at a dead gallop. Between her panicked horse, the awful smell of the incense, the black mist surrounding her and Lion, and the screaming of the monster, it was complete chaos. She could vaguely see the opening in the trees at the edge of the forest, and she aimed Lion in that direction.

They nearly ran over Rob and Bob, who were still standing in the middle of the trail, and she reined Lion in; he slid to a halt and only just managed to avoid them, vaguely aware that Bob was yelling something.

“Yes!” Bob was saying. “Ariana, you’ve got him! It’s working—catch!”

He threw the statue at her; she only just managed to catch it while she struggled to keep Lion from bolting again.

“Come on, Lion—let’s finish this.”

He whinnied shrilly in protest, but obeyed her and galloped back to where the demonic face hovered in its black aura, breathing raggedly before the smoke of a pot of incense. Not quite knowing what the hell to do, Ariana cocked her arm and hurled the statue at that damn face—the demon screamed with rage—

A blinding flash of light, the choking smell of sulfur, and the little statue fell to the forest floor. Ariana and Lion stared at it disbelievingly. The black smoke was gone. The red eyes had vanished. The forest was quiet—save for the running foot- and peg-steps of Rob and Bob running up to them.

“We did it!” Bob roared happily. “Or, well, YOU did it! You captured Usiku!”

“I’ll be damned,” she panted. “Lion, we did it.”

“I’m gonna pass out,” Lion groaned, his legs trembling. She dismounted, her own legs feeling a little shaky as her boots hit the forest floor, but she didn’t notice for long before she was being swept up into one of Rob’s squeezing, sweat-smelling hugs.

—

Later, after many thanks, a slap on the back from Bob, more hugs from Rob (This time, she was ready for him, so her face didn’t end up in his armpit), and much praise and pats on the nose for Lion, they stood on the ferry headed back to Jarlaheim.

Ariana inhaled deeply, relishing the feeling of the sea breeze in her blonde hair. Damn, she’d come too close to never feeling it again.

Lion huffed out a breath on her arm. “Think we’re far enough now?”

She nodded, startled out of her thoughts, and pulled the little statue from her coat.

“Sayonara, motherfucker.”

She pitched the statue over the side of the ferry and smiled as it splashed into the sea. She wished she’d asked Bob how to curse the thing out in Hindi. Maybe next time.

She smoothed down Lion’s forelock. He pinned his ears just to let her know that he was still mad at her.

“We almost died,” he grumbled.

“But we didn’t,” she said, grinning.

“Not _this_ time.”

She laughed and put her elbows on the railing, watching Jarlaheim in the distance. He’d get over it, once he was safe in his stall with his dinner. But she knew he wouldn’t forget this in a hurry. And, honestly, neither would she. They’d almost died, sure. But it was things like this that made her feel truly alive.

“’Til the next adventure,” she said, laughing when Lion pinned his ears again.


End file.
